Portable electronic devices have become ubiquitous in today's fast paced society. Various portable electronic devices provide functions from simple personal digital assistant functionality to in-the-field electronic devices which include real-time, high-speed data transfer for use by such professionals as building inspectors and peace officers. All of these devices have in common the need to provide a user with a friendly interface to facilitate the user's provision of information to the device, and/or systems coupled to the device.
Frequently the small nature of these portable electronic devices has provided challenges in providing a user with a friendly interface. Users of traditional, non-portable electronic devices have utilized electronic devices that reside in a wall rack or on a desktop. These traditional devices frequently contained a terminal and an associated standard QWERTY keyboard. This standard QWERTY keyboard was the primary method for providing input to these traditional electronic devices. Thus, users have become familiar with providing input to electronic devices utilizing a QWERTY keyboard interface.
In contrast with standard QWERTY keyboards in use with desktop and larger computers, miniaturized QWERTY keyboards for inputting data to portable electronic devices typically have a reduced key set. For example, typically, on these miniaturized QWERTY keyboards, the top row of number keys present on a standard QWERTY keyboard, are not present. This reduction in the number of keys present on the QWERTY keyboard is in an attempt to allow the keyboard to fit on the limited surface area of most portable electronic devices.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art, to-scale portable electronic device 100 utilizing a miniaturized QWERTY keyboard 110 for inputting data. Various factors may affect the surface area available for the keyboard. As will be appreciated, most portable electronic devices are compact to allow ease of transport by a user in a pocket or personal carrying device. In addition to the compactness of the device, a significant portion of the surface area that does exist is allocated to a display device 120 for display of text and graphics 125. This compactness and maximization of the display device 120 has led to the miniaturization of the surface area available for input keyboards such as a miniaturized QWERTY keyboard 110.
This reduction in surface area for input keyboards has come while trying to maintain full alphanumeric input capability. These competing requirements have resulted in a reduction in input key size as well as a reduction in spacing between input keys. Referring again to FIG. 1, note the relative size of the input keys 162 and the spacing between keys 164. This reduction in key size and spacing can make the use of keys on the miniaturized QWERTY keyboard 110 difficult. Frequently users will press keys inadvertently due to the close proximity and size of the keys. This affects the ability of a user to input data to the portable electronic device.
To overcome the limitations of providing input via keyboards, other user interface options have been developed. These other options for inputting data to portable electronic devices include voice recognition units. Historically however these voice recognition devices have not proven to be reliable. This unreliability is due to a number of factors. Background noise in an environment containing the portable electronic device can prevent proper recognition by the device of a command from the user. This background noise interferes with the ability of the speech recognition device to correctly discern the spoken word of a user. Other problems include being able to successfully associate specific vocalizations with specific phonemes which can vary among users based on age, gender and culture.